Mamma Mia!! An adventure in food porn and car towing...

La Torta Fritta

Salumi Here, Salumi There, Salumi EVERYWHERE!

I was hoping the Nona behind the counter would have Horse Meat as a dried sausage that I could travel with.  Alas, after the choppy conversation with her, she only had fresh to sell.  She was grinding it at the moment of our conversation!

The three grand madames with the Chef from Trattoria Ai Due Platini

Jeri's fabulous sachet of risotto!

The gnocco fritta (in the back), tomato couli with fried onions (on left) and the Parmesan Souffle (on the right).

Liz's Triangelli pasta with pumpkin, bacon, and balsamic

What a world wind tour we've had!!

Well,the dinner that we had on the first night, in Parma was spec-tac-ular!!!  After we got over the fact that Italians GET to the restaurant at 8 pm to start dinner, we were okay.  We ate at La Trattoria Ai Due Platini.

The waitstaff's hospitality were unmatched.  As soon as the gentlemen discovered that we were adventurous eaters and that we were game for anything, the fun began. Jeri does not eat red meat, so  besides the magnificent salumi plate of pancetta, cotta, speck, crudo, and pancetta, they talso brought out ciopolini onions marinaded in balsamic vinegar, an onion compote, gorgonzola and torta fritta (thinly rolled dough is then wonderfully fried so it puffs to a crispy pillow.  Va bene!  They helped us pick bottles of red and white to go with our selections for the next course.

Beth and Jeri each chose the tortellini (half were stuffed with cheese and herbs and the other half with squash) both covered in a delicate cream sauce.  When it came time for me  to order, I got so excited, I clammed up.  So our hansome waiter suggested the tagliatelle with rabbit and I swooned.  He knew exactly what would tickle  my  fancy.  And how!  All the dishes were heavenly.

And then...And then....Dessert.  Beth had seen the zabaglione on the menu (which I admit, I had never had a true one) Jeri ordered the Limone sorbet, and I had ordered the "white truffle". The zabaglione was the most over the top, wonderful.  The waiter came to the table with a sauce pan filled with this beautiful, yellow, fluffy magnificence.  The flavor of the sweet wine in the sauce was right in the front with the richness of all those egg yolks.  THEN they came out with a hazlenut biscotti to crumble INTO the zabaglione.  Holy cannoli.  That that the  piece d resistance! The salty, crunchy component.  Onto the white truffle:  Somehow, they were able to put a hazelnut filling in a meringue-like outer cookie.  It was divine all the way through. Finally, but not least, was the sorbet.  After all the rich food, this sorbet capped off the night with cleansing acidity.  What a meal.  The chef came out and we chatted with him about going to the slow food conference and his restaurant being recommended by Carlos Petrini's assistant.  Our night was complete when the chef saw us to the door and wished us buena notte!

The next day, we were going to get up bright and early to get to the market.  Well, jet lag had other plans for us.  We rolled awake at 10 am, local time and we were shocked! How did we sleep that late?!? Alas, we're only human and we had a raucous (and late) good time the night before with no break all day (bo-hoo, right?). So, we got ourselves together and went down to breakfast.  Jeri had never had Nutella  before, so we hadn't set foot out the door yet and we're learning something new.

Along the streets of Parma, we saw the "local flavors" of the people:  a horse meat shop (yeah, really), a vending machine that dispensed raw and pasturized milk, and when we got into the market place, there were pig ears for sale, pig tails, and gorgeous rolls of pig skin.

We hit the road after that to Reggio Nell Emelia for lunch with me (Liz) at the wheel. We stopped in the center of the city. We started with Prosecco and had a tasty caprese salad.  Beth had the seasood risotto and I had the gnocchi with red sauce.  Our bellies were now full and we were back on the road to see Modena.  We decided that we would head right into the heart of the city of Modena and go to the tourist information to decide on where to go to dinner and stay for the night.  We dutifully parked our rental on a street corner and (we thought) our tail end was tucked in enough. We parked, we walked the city, had a hot chocolate (so majestically thick and rich, it was like drinking hot pudding!!), Beth found stunning towels for her Greenmarket table display, and strolled shop windows.  We carefully made our way back to where we parked the car...and the car wasn't there where we left it.  No really.  It was gone.  Fine, as they say here.  We looked at each other with blank looks of horror. We pulled ourselves together and walked across the street from where the car HAD been and I asked the men in the shop if they had seen anything.  They  casually replied to me in Italian "Oh yeah.  They towed that away a little while ago.  But I don't know why. You weren't sticking out and if you look out right now, there's another car parked exactly where you were in the same way and they aren't getting towed."  (Beth figures they saw it was a rental.  So, one of the men in the coffee shop spoke a spot of English and so he called the towing company in town to ask if they had our car.  Low and behold, they did!  Sooooo,  we took a taxi across town (nope, that driver didn't speak English either, it's not just you).  But I hacked out a wonderful conversation with him as he was telling me how hard it is to park in the center of the city of Modena.  He dropped us at the tow guys to be greeted at the gate of the tows guys with the cutest NON-junk yard dog dogs.  (What tow guys do you know that keep dachshunds as guard dogs?!?! Italians, that's who).  He was lovely and I hacked out a conversation with him (and his LOVELY to sons) about how we were going to drive to our hotel.  (Did I mention that for some reason, there is sequence to properly turning the car on?)  Oh yeah, that.  It seems that if you locked the wheel while trying to start, there is a wheel unlock button you have to hit this button onthe dash.  Well, us broads hadn't figured that out yet, so one of the handsom boys started our car for us (I couldn't figure out how to translate "Damsel in Distress"), but no matter. The handsome (did I metntion handsome?) boys says us to the door.

So,  we get lost on the way to every city, get our car towed, and we still manage to find our hotel, and make our way to dinner.  Last night, we had dinner at the restaurant that was recommended on the Slow Food website, Le Erbetto Di Re: The Herbs of the King.  Yet another wonderful meal.  This restaurant was very different from the night before.  This restaurant was white linen and black truffles waiting in on the maitre d hotel's station with the razor.  The night before that had been classically rustic and warm waitstaff.  Not that either was better than the other; just different.  As an amuse, they served us tomato coulis with delicately fried tiny onions, gnocco frita (fried cracker) and a parmesean souffle with potato puree.  The simplicity of each of them was the magic of it.

Jeri started with the eggplant and tomato napoleon, Beth had the fried bacala (salted cod) and I had the Parmesan with balsamic at four different ages.  The eggplant was delectably tender and sweet while Beth's cod was a perfect combination of sweet and salty while being crispy.  The Parmesan tasting has been suggested to me by the waiter and it was quite a recommendation.  Each quarter of the plate had a differently aged mousseline of Parmesan, with a sauce of balsamic topped by hazelnuts, a house made cracker and a Parmesan fritto.  Each section's cheese was progressively more aged.  As you progressed through the four ages of the same cheese, the texture got smoother and the flavor became mellower.  What an amazing contrast. Who knew?!?

For our main entrees, Jeri had a purse of risotto, Beth had pasta with bolognese and I had the Triangelli Pasta with pumpkin, bacon and balsamic.  The presentation of Jeri's plate took the cake, hands down.  A beautiful package came to the table and so when she opened it, a gentle poof of steam escaped along with the delicate aroma of fresh green peas and beans.  The risotto was cooked absolutely purrrrrfectly!!  The timing was immaculate.  For my plate, the balsamic was dripped over my pasta table side.  When the sweet vinegar mixed with the pumpkin and the salty sweet of the bacon and the creaminess of the ricotta.  It was a dream.  Beth's bolognese sauce was nothing like you've ever seen.  It wasn't a tomato based sauce with a smattering of meat.  It was 5 different cuts of beef to make a MEAT sauce; and it was!  The pasta and meat together were simple pleasure, in itself.

Dessert was it's own adventure.  Jeri ordered the vanilla gelato with carrot and celery (yes, you read that correctly).  Surprisingly, they went together very well.  The sweetness of the carrots and celery played well with the vanilla.  Beth and I ordered the gnocco fritta filled with a milk chocolate mousse, topped with prosciutto, with a milk reduction on the side, a cherry compote and a hazelnut cake.
The chef came out to chat with us, like the previous night.  Once again, so hospitable.  He is also going to be at the Slow Food Conference doing a demo on Friday.  So we will look for him.  We told him we were heading south to the sea coast and asked him to recommend a place to eat.  He told us Hotel Byron and La Restorante La Magnolia.  Another meal well done!

I shall report today's adventure's tomorrow morning, as my pillow awaits me!!

Buono notte!